The Brazilian sports minister has declared the London Olympics the "best possible", but vowed to match the achievement in four years' time in Rio.

The Olympic baton will be passed to Rio during Sunday's closing ceremony, with an eight-minute samba sequence that will showcase Brazil.

"I was here a couple of weeks ago to see the opening ceremony. I am here for the third time now during the Olympics, and my overall impression has been the best possible in terms of the organisation, the atmosphere, everything to do with the London Games," said Aldo Rebelo. He said that among the lessons Rio had learned from London was the importance of investing in the success of the nation on the field, and forward planning.

Brazil, which hosts the football World Cup in 2014 and the Rio Games in 2016, is facing questions over transport and logistics preparations. The minister insisted that hosting both events so close together was a positive move. Rebelo, who became sports minister last year after his predecessor Orlando Silva was forced out amid corruption allegations, said that Rio would follow the "London model".

"I was very impressed with their operations and their planning," he said, also praising the way that London had presented the sport in venues and for "embracing the athletes".

"I am pleased we have finished the planning segment of the work and we are also finalising the planning for our athletics operations. We hope we will be as well prepared as Team GB," he told the Observer.

If there has been one criticism of the London Games, it has been that the atmosphere in the venues has not always spread to the streets. Leonardo Gryner, the chief executive of the Rio 2016 organising committee, said that would not be the case in Rio. "In Brazil, we like to party. We will have lots of live sites around the streets. Whenever we put a show on Copacabana beach we grab a huge crowd. On new year's eve we have two million people on the streets." Like London, Rio is projecting itself as a multi-ethnic global city that wants to be seen as tolerant and welcoming. "It is a very mixed society on all fronts – religious, racial background, historical, ethnicity, you name it," said Rebelo. "It's a very tolerant society, and this is one of the main messages we want to express to the world. As a nation, we can push forward a vision of nation that is tolerant and diverse and welcoming."

Rio won the Games partly by reminding the International Olympic Committee of its position as a rising economic superpower, but Rebelo said that hosting the event would not be an explicit attempt to announce its arrival on the world stage.

"Everyone is aware of that – it's a known fact. But the main thing is the tolerance and the mixed society we have. In a world that has so many challenges in that respect, it is one of the main messages we can show to the world."

Observing the way that the success of British athletes had catalysed the mood of the host nation, Rebelo said that Brazil had copied London's model and poured money into Olympic sport. "We have a plan called 'the medal project'. We have learned a lot from the experience in the UK and how the government has invested in elite sport."

In many ways London, which became the first city to host the Games three times, is an anomaly given a trend of taking the Olympics to new regions. "These are the first Games in Brazil or in South America. It is a unique and challenging experience. We want to meet expectations and show the world Rio and Brazil is capable of putting on an amazing spectacle," said Rebelo.